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Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone

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Re: Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone

#31

Post by orhmeh09 »

sudopluto wrote: post #14
binsquare wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's incredibly repairable. I still use the t480 for modern workloads because I've been able to switch out the battery, the fan, the keyboard with fairly abundant aftermarket parts.

sadly my t480's usb c port is no longer able to charge the device, do you know of a way to fix it without replacing the mobo / getting god tier soldering skills? i'm kinda attached since i did a bunch of upgrades like two heatpipes and glass touchpad, sad to see my laptop from college die for a reason like the port dying

I have the same issue. For all the talk of USB-C's supposed design for redirecting damage from the ports to the connector, it failed pretty badly here for probably thousands of people. Never had these issues with a barrel connector.

Re: Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone

#32

Post by jubilee33 »

sudopluto wrote: post #14
binsquare wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's incredibly repairable. I still use the t480 for modern workloads because I've been able to switch out the battery, the fan, the keyboard with fairly abundant aftermarket parts.

sadly my t480's usb c port is no longer able to charge the device, do you know of a way to fix it without replacing the mobo / getting god tier soldering skills? i'm kinda attached since i did a bunch of upgrades like two heatpipes and glass touchpad, sad to see my laptop from college die for a reason like the port dying

This happens often on old ones. Its kind of a consumable part unless you get a magnetic usb-c adaptor. the sub-board is replaceable but does need soldering....not god tier skills at all though, I think most people with some soldering experience could do it as it's just a few pins, but I guess it's not plug and play. It's really the one weakness in this model.

Re: Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone

#33

Post by userbinator »

most Android phones have a separate Android system running in the modem

Very strong doubt. They're usually running a RTOS. My experience has mainly been with Mediatek's, which use Nucleus Plus.

The OP may have confused things with the ultra-cheap USB modems which are actually a headless smartphone, and those do run Android: https://liliputing.com/this-dirt-cheap-4g-lte-modem-on-a-usb...

Re: Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone

#35

Post by marosgrego »

userbinator wrote: post #33

most Android phones have a separate Android system running in the modem Very strong doubt. They're usually running a RTOS. My experience has mainly been with Mediatek's, which use Nucleus Plus. The OP may have confused things with the ultra-cheap USB modems which are actually a headless smartphone, and those do run Android: https://liliputing.com/this-dirt-cheap-4g-lte-modem-on-a-usb...

What about Qualcomm modems? It is the case for this one at least.

Re: Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone

#36

Post by cosmic_cheese »

orhmeh09 wrote: post #31
sudopluto wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sadly my t480's usb c port is no longer able to charge the device, do you know of a way to fix it without replacing the mobo / getting god tier soldering skills? i'm kinda attached since i did a bunch of upgrades like two heatpipes and glass touchpad, sad to see my laptop from college die for a reason like the port dying

I have the same issue. For all the talk of USB-C's supposed design for redirecting damage from the ports to the connector, it failed pretty badly here for probably thousands of people. Never had these issues with a barrel connector.

The problem I always had with barrel connectors is that they get loose, sometimes very quickly, and this experience has been near-universal. Even the more fancy barrel-with-center-pin connector found on some PowerPC PowerBooks and iBooks wasn’t immune.

USB-C is definitely no panacea when it comes to durability, though. I’ve had better luck with Lightening and wish the USB-C connector took more inspiration from it.

Re: Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone

#37

Post by bri3d »

marosgrego wrote: post #35
userbinator wrote: post #33

most Android phones have a separate Android system running in the modem Very strong doubt. They're usually running a RTOS. My experience has mainly been with Mediatek's, which use Nucleus Plus. The OP may have confused things with the ultra-cheap USB modems which are actually a headless smartphone, and those do run Android: https://liliputing.com/this-dirt-cheap-4g-lte-modem-on-a-usb...

What about Qualcomm modems? It is the case for this one at least.

My experience has been that Qualcomm mobile phone chipsets don’t run Android on the modem side, but that standalone (ie laptop / USB / router) ones like this Quectel part sometimes do, in order to provide the userland components that run on the phone’s Android system / AP in a phone application. The actual basebands run an OS called REX usually.

Re: Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone

#38

Post by cosmic_cheese »

PunchyHamster wrote: post #18

It has whitelist for wireless cards ? That's just evil

Not just that, they restrict the WWAN slot to cell modem cards only.

This really sucks because it’s just mPCI and could host a number of other things. I used the WWAN slot on an old Dell Precision to adapt to a modern Intel WiFi+BT card for example (a 2008 laptop with WiFi 6E+BT 5!).

On my X1 Nano, the slot isn’t even wired to an antenna since I didn’t get the cell BTO option, so it’s present but totally useless thanks to the restriction. They could at least let me pop a second SSD in there…

Re: Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone

#39

Post by marosgrego »

bri3d wrote: post #37
marosgrego wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about Qualcomm modems? It is the case for this one at least.

My experience has been that Qualcomm mobile phone chipsets don’t run Android on the modem side, but that standalone (ie laptop / USB / router) ones like this Quectel part sometimes do, in order to provide the userland components that run on the phone’s Android system / AP in a phone application. The actual basebands run an OS called REX usually.

Thanks, corrected it.

Re: Using ThinkPad T480 as a mobile phone

#40

Post by BoingBoomTschak »

marosgrego wrote: post #35
userbinator wrote: post #33

most Android phones have a separate Android system running in the modem Very strong doubt. They're usually running a RTOS. My experience has mainly been with Mediatek's, which use Nucleus Plus. The OP may have confused things with the ultra-cheap USB modems which are actually a headless smartphone, and those do run Android: https://liliputing.com/this-dirt-cheap-4g-lte-modem-on-a-usb...

What about Qualcomm modems? It is the case for this one at least.

Think I've heard something about OKL4 but I wouldn't be sure.
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